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Building your own gear legs

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Vern

Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 7
Location: N Calif

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject: Building your own gear legs

Hello everyone 

I,m the new guy on the block

 I own a mark 3 and I want to build new gear legs for her.

 A little taller and set a little forward.

 Could you fellows tell me what tubing thickness everyone uses when building 4130 gear legs and where you get them heat treated, cost ect.

I sure would appreciate it.

                    Thanks  Vern

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John Hauck

Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 4639
Location: Titus, Alabama (hauck's holler)

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:22 am Post subject: Building your own gear legs

> I,m the new guy on the block

 >                    Thanks  Vern

Hi Vern:



Tell us a little bit about yourself, who, what, when, and where.



I use 1.125 X .125 4130.



Heat treat to RC48.



Here is a metal treating company I have used in the past.  They had a plant 

in Anniston, AL, last time I had a heat treating requirement, but looks like 

they have shut that plant down:



http://www.braddockmt.com/



You can do a Google search for "metal treating" or "heat treating" and come 

up with lots of places to get the job done.



I find it much easier to fabricate and fit the gear legs with axle sockets 

welded on, wheels aligned and all holes drilled prior to heat treating.



Take care,



john h

mkIII

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_________________
John Hauck
MKIII/912ULS
hauck's holler
Titus, Alabama

John Bickham

Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 170
Location: St. Francisville, LA

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:41 pm Post subject: Re: Building your own gear legs

Vern,



This is how I did it.  Not saying this is the best, but works great for me.

My approach was similar the factory method with a few tweaks recommended by John H and his brother Jim. Used existing gear sockets and did not make mods to move forward like on Miss P'fer.



As John H said and recommended:



1.375 x .120 wall 4130



All welding, fitting, aligning, drilling done prior to heat treating to RC48.  Really hard to drill once heat treated.  They heat treater will tell you that the tubes will distort some.  Not enough to matter in my opinion.



My axle sockets are 1.00 x .120 wall for the bigger, better 3/4" Matco W62 axles with tapered bearings.  These axles are heavy duty and have a lot more brake pad surface area.  Braking is much improved.  I know some guys that can land with their wheels locked on a grass strip to make sure they win a shortest landing contest with these brakes.  



The other thing is 800-6.0 tires.  Between the Heat treated still legs and the larger tires, the cushion and energy absorbed on landing is great.  I really had trouble knowing when I was down and rolling when I first used the new setup.  You have to experiment with the air pressure a bit.  Too much air pressure will throw you back into the air.



John H. and Brother Jim recommended I put in 7 degrees of positive camber on the axles.  If you notice a few of the folks with the factory legs have the Kolb gear squat after a few tough landings.  This was true for the original factory steel gear.  Maybe they have improved this with a little positive camber now.  I put in the 7 degrees + camber and thought I would field adjust a lot of that out with some hard landings and end up close to zero camber.  Hasn't happened yet.  Somewhere between 5 and 7 degrees would be right.  I have a CUB like pigeon toe look gear unloaded and airborne.  Hope I got this positive/negative camber thing right.  see picture



Back in 2006 when I did this:



4130 was about $60

Matco W62 axles - ~$445.00

Heat treating - $110.00

800 - 6.0 Tires from Dresser $164.00



E-mail direct if you want to discuss more and I can be of any help.  John H and his Brother Jim were a big help to me.  don't want to take credit due them.



I'm sure I'm an "idiot" for the way I did it.  But I like it a lot. And I have a little fear when I go as slow as I can.

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IMGP0564 (Small).JPG

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JUST about to lift off. Zero weight on gear.

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gear legs 007.jpg

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Living the Dream 2 003 (Medium).jpg

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_________________
Thanks too much,

John Bickham
Mark III-C w/ 912UL
St. Francisville, LA

I know many pilots and a few true aviators. There is a distinct difference that I have the greatest respect for.

John Hauck

Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 4639
Location: Titus, Alabama (hauck's holler)

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:08 pm Post subject: Building your own gear legs

> This is how I did it.



 	  Quote: 	
		   John Bickham


	




John B:



Ya done good.



MKIII looks good, and I know it flies good.  My fat mkIII has a hard time 

keeping up with yours.



The positive camber looks great.  Negative camber on a Kolb is intolerable. 





john h

mkIII

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_________________
John Hauck
MKIII/912ULS
hauck's holler
Titus, Alabama

Vern

Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 7
Location: N Calif

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:26 pm Post subject: Re: Building your own gear legs

Thanks for the good information. The plane looks really good.

 John wanted me to tell a little about myself.

I live in the very Northern part of calif. The nearest Kolb flyer that I know of is over in Klamath falls Oregon.

I have restored a couple of planes and built a RV7 and now your wondering why I have a Kolb Mark 3. 

Well I have to get to the airport somehow. Actually I like to build and tinker and while I,m building and tinkering I just as well build a plane that I can fly off my place witch is 1/2 mile long and 329' wide. But its not good enough for the RV7A. I like to fly slow as well as fast.

I have a mill , lathe, mig & tig so I'm setup for building. I plan on building a aluminum fuel tank for the Kolb.

Well enough for now. I will probably be picking your brains before its over with

                              Vern

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John Bickham

Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 170
Location: St. Francisville, LA

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:08 am Post subject: Re: Building your own gear legs

Vern,



First, welcome to the list.



Second sorry about the typos.



Third, wish you were closer.  Could rent some mill and lathe time from you.  Been wanting and looking for a while.



There are a few details on the on gear legs that may be helpful if you decide to go that route.



I also did some work on a 21.5 gallon tank.  Can share some of that ciphering work if it would be helpful.

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